State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, Left, and Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, walk through the Capitol after leaving a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, June 24, 2011. The two majority leaders met with the governor to discuss an alternative budget plan the governor could support if it were passed by a simple majority of Democrats.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento,...

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California Gov. Jerry Brown delivers a keynote address during the 2011 Pacific Coast Builders Conference on June 23, 2011 in San Francisco, California. California Gov. Jerry Brown delivered his address as State legislators scramble to revise a budget that Gov. Brown vetoed.

After months of attempting to find a bipartisan solution to California's budget deficit, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday said he is no longer seeking Republican support as he and Democratic leaders announced a plan to balance the budget that will be voted on today.

The move comes less than two weeks after Brown shocked Democrats by vetoing their plan to close the remaining $9.6 billion deficit, a plan he called inadequate. The new proposal relies largely on billions of dollars in previously unanticipated new revenue, but no additional taxes.

If that revenue does not materialize, K-12 schools, higher education and social services would be hit with deeper cuts midyear.

"Going forward, we do expect more revenues in the budget year coming up, but in case that's overly optimistic, we do have severe trigger cuts that will be triggered and go into effect. And those are real," Brown said.

The administration will determine in January whether the additional cuts, which include shortening the school year by seven days, will take effect, though budget officials said they are confident the money will appear. This Democratic proposal needs only a majority of the Legislature to approve it and if Brown signs it, lawmakers will begin receiving their salaries, a spokesman for Controller John Chiang said.

Lawmakers' pay stopped

Chiang cut off lawmakers' pay last week after determining the vetoed budget was not balanced, but he will not evaluate a plan that is signed by the governor. The new plan retains some elements of the vetoed Democratic plan, including eliminating and replacing redevelopment agencies, imposing a sales tax on online retailers, increasing vehicle registration fees by $12 and making even deeper cuts to higher education. It does not include any changes in public employee pensions, environmental regulations or spending restraints that Republicans had wanted in exchange for their support for a special election on taxes.

Brown said he would continue to push for increases in tax revenue and may do so with a ballot measure in November 2012.

The most significant change from earlier budget proposals is a $5.2 billion increase in projected and actual tax revenue, which budget officials said largely is the result of unexpected income growth for wealthy Californians. However, if that revenue doesn't come in, then there could be up to $2.6 billion in additional spending cuts. The Department of Finance will make that determination in January.

'Phantom money'

Some Republicans criticized the revenue projections. In total, revenue projections, including actual revenue, are $11.5 billion higher than the governor assumed in his January proposal. Republican Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County), vice chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said $4 billion of that is "phantom (money) that may never materialize. That's a wand Harry Potter would be proud to wield."

Other Republicans, however, declared victory. Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway of Tulare issued a statement saying that the GOP's "steadfast opposition to higher taxes has helped remind Sacramento tax-and-spend liberals of the need to live within our means."

Conway noted that Brown's failure to extend taxes means that a number of temporary tax increases will expire Friday. She said those expirations will result in the average California family saving nearly $1,000 a year. And California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro said the governor's announcement "proves that there was no need for higher taxes this year."

Still, the additional cuts of $150 million each to the University of California and California State University systems - on top of $500 million in cuts to each approved earlier this year - along with another cut to state courts of $150 million already have been blasted by higher education and court officials. Courts also would have $300 million worth of construction projects delayed.

Redevelopment agency supporters maintain that the plan to eliminate and replace the agencies - and move $1.7 billion into state coffers this year - is illegal, and they vowed Monday to take the issue to court.

Sales tax to fund jail shift

A plan to move more public safety functions to the county level - including keeping thousands of low-level offenders at county jails instead of state prisons- will be fully funded through a complex shift in the sales tax, though that tax will not increase.

Brown sat alongside state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, to announce the compromise. It marked a significant departure for the governor, who had insisted since his inauguration in January that he would be able to get the four Republican votes needed to place tax extensions and increases on the ballot.

Brown said he realized last night that that would not come to pass when he received a text message from one of the Republican legislators he had been in talks with.